My mother's stories (chapter three - the ending)

My mother's stories
chapter 3
 The settlement in the steppe

(the ending)

              We moved to our hut in spring when I was seven – just before I had to start school. I think I can vaguely recollect the improvised fence made of the wire and iron pegs, which showed black among thick steppe grass. I can’t remember anything else, but I know how it looked like here in spring before the city expansion spoilt the environment. Of course, the air was fresh and sweet, the blooming fields spread out to the horizon in the north and the salt lake surface glistened like silver under the sun in the west. The new fence was built soon and the land was turned into a thoroughly cultivated kitchen garden by my mother’s eager hands. Here she was in her element – she loved growing plants and breeding chickens. And for me it was a completely new world to explore.

             In this world there were a lot of different plants, insects and birds to watch or to play with. And what a temptation it was to walk there where far away the fields met the sky. Horizon – it was a new thing for me too. You can’t see it when you live in the city.

             I remember once I persuaded my new friend, who was only four (three years younger than me), to go to the fields. I was eager to explore a wild garden in a gently sloping hollow at one or two kilometers distance from our dwelling. But we passed only one or two hundred meters when my friend felt scared and refused to go further. We were still arguing, standing at the place from which the whole open space of fields could be clearly seen, when my friend’s father came running and scolding. He took her in his arms and we went back home. I felt disappointed and uncomfortable, shuffling in their wake, knowing, that my friend could be spanked for that, probably even flogged with a leather belt. If I remember correctly, I didn’t get even a proper reprimand for my willfulness.

            Nevertheless, my life hugely improved since we had left the factory region. There weren't many children in the new settlement. But they were mostly of my age or younger, and all of them respected me as I was a good pupil at school and, more than that, I could draw and invent new games. I used to spend a lot of pleasant hours, playing “hide and seek” in the forest shelter belt near the railway or different active games on the lawn between the two belts or sitting near the fire in the dark, telling scary stories.

         To be continued…

(c) Anna Shevchenko

1. Festive demonstraions
2. A merry-go-round
3. The settlement in the steppe